Rocky Ridge Ranch Lakes

Presidents Message May 2020

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Greetings fellow Fly Fishers. As the COVID-19 situation persists sometimes all you can do is maintain your sense of humor. It’s good to see the Fly Fishing & Tying Journal is doing just that with their “what kind of trout is this” cover. We are all dealing with this in our own way and on my home front the yard looks great, my liver probably doesn’t and I’m gaining weight like a prize bull.

Spring fishing has taken a back seat but I’m still getting out a little and catching a few. George Coutts and I have hit the OFC ponds a couple times by meeting at the OC Home Depot and carpooling from there, wearing our masks in the car. It seems to be a workable system. Others are getting out too. Recently Darry Huff texted a picture of his first summer steelhead of the year; May is the best month of the year to pursue Clackamas Summer Steelhead. Several of you have journeyed over to Rocky Ridge and caught some trout as big as steelhead. It’s a big fish year over there.

If you haven’t been able to get out I have free FFTJ’s for anyone that wants them while supplies last; just send me an email and we’ll figure out how to get a copy into your hands. Also, you can take advantage of our well stocked Library.

Our local fly shops recently opened their doors to walk in traffic, just be sure to be courteous, maintain social distance even if you don’t believe in it and of course wear a mask.

The May 19th meeting is uncertain. Our May speaker is not traveling so if High Rocks opens we’ll have to think of something else, and we will if allowed! I’ll keep everyone posted by email as the situation unfolds.

Some members really want the May 23rd Fish a Long at Timothy Lake to happen, so it probably will. Our launch site at Oak Fork Campground is due to open May 22nd. To maintain social distancing everyone will need to bring their own lunch & beverages. Also, it’s $5 to park. I’ll get the details posted as the date approaches.

The return to a more normal life is starting to unfold but at a decidedly slow and cautious pace. It’s like trying to watch a spring flower bloom; you can’t see it happening but then one day it does. I’m ready!

Dave Kilhefner

April 2020 CFF Fishing Reports

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Hi Everyone, the Coronavirus lockdown is still with us! During the month of April some CFF members ventured out on the water, kept their distance and enjoyed good fishing. Here are their stories with the pictures on top and the report below:

From John Warren: (from March, I missed this one in my email inbox) My grandsons have been taking advantage of their extend spring break and doing well on Fall River and Crooked. This one is from Fall and will send additional pics from each after this ( you should be able to tell which river.) I met them Sunday in Maupin and showed them around. No pics from there, but I got around 10 trout and one of boys got around 8 with a few whitefish mixed in. Truck thermometer read 71 in the afternoon!.

From Richard Harvey: Like last month the OFC properties fished well.  The key was to go small with your flies.

From Lane Hoffman: Fished Rocky Ridge Ranch it’s fishing the best I have ever seen! Really big fish, I’m talking about 5 to double digit Rainbows! Fished both the upper & middle lakes, both were excellent. Size 10 olive “Seal” bugger & a size 12 olive jig fly. Both were fished on an intermediate sinking fly line and a 1X fluorocarbon leader, don’t go light on the leader & use a loop knot! A fished Krumbo Reservoir on the south end of the Malheur Refuge in SE Oregon which fished very well. Two size of fish, 12 to 13 inches & 20 plus all footballs; great float tube lake. By myself so no pic’s.

From George Krumm: I fished RRR three days this month.  There are good numbers of large rainbows this year.  I didn’t make it down to Mullein, but both of the other two lakes fished well.  On my best day, I landed about 20 fish which doesn’t sound all that great, but at least a dozen were over 5 pounds, with a few much larger than that. Black leeches, olive leeches, and black chironomid pupa imitations all worked.

From Dave Kilhefner: George Couts and I hit a couple Oregon Fishing Club lakes. We met at Oregon City Home Depot, put on our masks and carpooled to the Highland Lakes area. Fishing was a little slow but we both managed to land a few plus it was great to get outside. Chironomids and small leeches were the best flies. The next day I fished the Sandy River. Shared the water with a guy fishing jigs and beads, so tried something different and threw a spoon and caught this beauty.

From Darryl Huff: I frequently hook sturgeon on the Sandy while steelhead fishing. This one was a little larger than most. This one took a bead and was landed on a 10 pound leader.

From Greg O’Brien: Not much fishing for me this month, but did manage a few trout on a recent outing to Rainier Ponds. 

From Kevin Rogers: My one time out I fished Sauvies on opening day before it got crowed. Worked on fishing dry flies for a change, they were hitting non stop for about an hour.

Hope everyone is tolerating the social distancing requirements, masking up when out in public and maintaining a positive outlook. This lockdown won’t last forever!

May 2019 CFF Fishing Reports

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Lot’s of good fishing happens in May and CFF members got out and had good times on the water. Here are their reports:

Lane Hoffman with a bruiser size Rainbow from Rocky Ridge

In early May Lane Hoffman and Jim Romero had good action on large sized rainbows at Rocky Ridge Ranch.

Dave Kilhefner and Chris Obuchowski fished Big Tree Lake at the Oregon Fishing Club. The water temperature had jumped to 64 degrees and the bite was off but they still managed to grind out around a dozen trout in the 12” to 18” range. All the local wildlife was out enjoying the fine spring weather; hunting ospreys, families of geese and even a beaver.

Dave Kilhefner traveled to Kona, Hawaii and caught some strong & interesting looking fish off the rocks.

CFF members Red Smith, Gil Henderson and Carson Taylar made a couple trips to the Deschutes River by Maupin, having good action on Redsides throwing big stonefly dries along undercut banks and under the trees.

Phil Hager spent 9 days camped at Crane Prairie, fishing Crane, Lava and Hosmer. It was windy nearly full time along with rain, hail, snow and even a little sunshine. Most of the days the highs we’re in the 40’s to low 50’s and nights close to freezing. Was it worth it? Rainbows, Cutthroat, Brookies, Browns and even a couple Bass were caught, with many 16″-18″ along with 3-5 pound Rainbows and Brook Trout,

Richard Harvey traveled to Puget Sound and had good action on sea run cutthroats during outgoing tides using baitfish imitation flies.  

Greg O’Brien traveled to Massachusetts and experienced some hot Striper fishing, catching 40+ schoolies on the fly one morning in the bay.  Big fish are coming soon we hope, our biggest was 30”.

Greg O’Brien found this nice brook trout along with several others at Timothy Lake.

Adrian Choate spent two weeks camping on the Deschutes. He had lots of stone fly dry action did do too well on nymphs. He reports at the end of May there are still quite a few bugs still flying and it’s the best stonefly hatch he’s seen in the last several years!

April 2019 CFF Fishing Reports

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  • Paul Brewer with a nice rainbow
  • It was very windy at our last outing at Rocky Ridge, but the fishing was great!
  • Lane Hoffman with a Rocky Ridge lunker.
  • A nice Rocky Ridge rainbow caught by Carson Taylor

The Clackamas Fly Fishers board retreat at Rocky Ridge was a big success with many large trout landed. The wind was blowing hard but the trout were on the bite. There’s lots of room on the Rocky Ridge schedule so get over there!

Don Lewis with a Yakutat Steelhead on his father & son trip with Gary Lewis.

Don Lewis traveled to Yakutat to fish for steelhead with his son Gary. They had a great father/son trip and hooked many steelhead!

  • Chris Dudley fishing Omak Lake
  • Chris Dudley with a beautiful Lahontan Cutthroat
  • A nice Lahontan Cutthroat

In mid April Chris Dudley made the journey to Omak Lake to fish with his sister Cynthia and other friends. The fishing was a little slow with 6 fish landed in two days, but all the fish were big! The best techniques were slow trolling a woolly bugger on an intermediate line or suspending balanced leeches below an indicator. Wind was a problem for the pontoon boats so most fish were taken from shore on this trip.

  • The Jolly Rancher Fly
  • One of many Justesen Lakes trout caught by Chris Dudley and his son

Chris Dudley and his son Jason and fished Justesen Ranch Lakes April 19-21, with four pairs of fathers and sons. They did very well with suspended leeches, chironomids and dark woolly buggers, but by far the best fly was the Jolly Rancher, obtained a the  Deschutes River Fly Shop in Maupin. The largest was 22 inches, with many at 16-19″. A great time had by all. The best chironomid patterns were chrome, snow cone and black in medium sizes fished just before dark.

Darryl Huff got this net busting Redside on the Deschutes River opening weekend.

Darryl Huff fished the Warm Springs section of the Deschutes when it opened on Monday April 22nd. The water was high running at 6300 CFS but the color was ok. Crowds were expected but the high water and Monday opener kept most away. No single fly was best Darryl caught trout plenty of 12-18″ trout on the san juan worm, zebra midge, blue perdigon, olive sculpin, glow bug plus multiple stone fly patterns.


Rocky Ridge Fish-A-long Report May 19, 2018

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Last weekends Fish-a-long to Rocky Ridge was another good time with good friends, good food and good fishing.

For the crew that arrived on Friday night Lane served up some Elk Enchiladas. If that wasn’t enough, Tim served up some great smoked ribs for Saturday nights dinner. Good eats, thanks guys!

Saturday dawned with overcast skies but we had no rain or wind. Fish were rising here and there. Several of us started on the middle lake (Wild Rose). Naturally I tried a Green Devil but it wasn’t working so I switched to chironomids but strikes were slow in coming. A fine fishing riddle is brewing!

The water temperature was 64 degrees and the lake had good clarity. The conditions were ripe for a damselfly migration but chucking and olive/brown marabou damsel nymph didn’t produce.

After a while I finally brought a fish to hand on a small olive chironomid pupa. A stomach pump revealed a very a small damsel nymph, a few light olive chironomids and small scuds.

At lunch we compared notes. The upper lake (Mules Ear) was fishing better but the fishing was not hot. Lane did OK on his favorite seal bugger/intermediate line combo and Nancy did OK fishing with dries. Paul went down to the lower lake and did well on bass. Lastly, Lane observed a few callibaetis mayflies coming off and suggested we try fishing callibaetis nymphs after lunch.

Tim, John and I stuck with the middle lake. John and Tim went down by the dam and some callibeatis were coming off. John did well on calibaetis dry and emerger patterns on a floating line and Tim did well with a beadhead calibaetis nymph on an Intermediate line. The calibaetis were coming off sporadically, sort of in spurts, and when that happened the fish would stop keying on chironomids and would go after the larger mayflies.

I stuck to the flats near the boat launch. Strangely, the callibeatis mayflies were not hatching here (I tried them!) so I stuck with chironomids and did OK, but mostly I got short strikes, which tells me my fly was close but still not really the right one. About a half hour before I had to leave I saw some larger chironomids emerging—the pupa were chestnut brown and about a size 12. I had some similar patterns in my fly box, put one on and got several hard takes and landed a couple nice fish in short order. Finally! It was a great way to end the day.

http://rockyridgeranchoregon.com/

Rocky Ridge Ranch Fishing Report

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Last Saturday the Clackamas Fly Fishers board members went on their annual board retreat to Rocky Ridge Ranch. The weather was nice but breezy, the company was good and everyone had a great time!

We all caught fish plus we were able to catch them by our favorite methods! For me, that is casting and erratically stripping a little devil streamer on a floating line. Lane Hoffman did well throwing small seal buggers on an intermediate line. Jim Adams found a willing pod of fish and caught a ton of them on dark-colored snow cone chironomids fished a scant 2 feet under an indicator. At the end of the day the wind died down and Henry was catching fish on top with ant patterns.

The upper lake (Mules Ear) had the highest concentration of fish and that’s where most of us spent our time after lunch. We all started at the middle lake (Wild Rose) after breakfast and while we caught fish it was a little challenging. The lower lake (Mullein) had a lot of small bass but the few trout that were hooked were big!

Some data: the water temperature was in the upper 50’s with good visibility. By the time we have the May 19th fish-a-long it will be in the low 60’s and that should bring out the damselfly nymphs that trout love. The best patterns this trip were #6 green devils, #6 or #8 olive seal buggers and #12 or #14 dark colored chironomids with a white bead head (snow cones). 3x and 4x tippets (6lb to 8lb) were needed to hold the larger trout and we got a few that exceeded the 20” mark.

http://rockyridgeranchoregon.com/

May Fish-A-Long Report Rocky Ridge Ranch Lakes

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This months Fish-A-Long was a huge success with warm weather, good food and fun company. We had a strong turnout and everyone got into fish.

Special thanks to Lane Hoffman for cooking dinner Friday night, Phil for Saturday breakfast and Paul for grilling burgers for Saturday lunch.

Some of us arrived Friday evening. The wind was calm and there was a good chironomid hatch going on. Fish were rising all over, some only feet from the shore in less 2 feet of water. It was hard to sit and watch but technically our fishing did not start until Saturday. We enjoyed a few libations on the deck, told lies and enjoyed a tasty chicken & dumpling dinner prepared by Lane.

The sun is up early this time of year so to get on the water at first light the early risers were up at 4:30 and on the water by 5am to target some of the big cruisers on the main lake. Lane had good action early on Seal Buggers and the rest of us caught a few.

The upper lake had been freshly stocked with trout; some real big ones! They were hanging around the boat ramp. It didn’t take long to figure this out and since space at the ramp is limited we took turns catching fish.

The lower lake was uncrowded. Dave and Phil ventured down there and had steady action for most of the day. Dave caught a 25” rainbow on a Green Devil streamer.

The water temperature was around 60 degrees with about 4 feet of visibility. At this water temperature you expect to see the damsel migration going. While there where good numbers of adult damsels out, only a few fish were caught on damsel nymphs; not what you’d expect if the fish were looking for them. Later in the afternoon Lane and Nancy tried some blue damsel dry patterns; this didn’t produce fast action but the strikes were vicious and worth waiting for.

The Rocky Ridge lakes have lots of quality fish in them and fishing is good right now!

http://rockyridgeranchoregon.com/

 

 

Rocky Ridge Ranch Report

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The Rocky Ridge Lakes have some very big trout and the best time to get one of these pigs is when they are active for a short time before dawn. I arrived at the main lake at 6:30 to find Jim Adams fighting his second of two big trout; both were hooked on Chironomids.

That got the blood pumping so I quickly got into my float tube, kicked out of the shallows and started fishing with Chironomids as well. I got a couple average size trout, then the sun came up and the bite slowed.

Today the weather was clear with some high clouds. This place is famous for wind and there is really cool breeze blowing, but fortunately it’s not blowing too hard. The sun is up early this time of year and after our long winter this catches me by surprise. The water temperature was 56° with about 4 feet of clarity.

I tried several different Chironomid patterns and they just don’t seem to be working the way they should. After an hour or so of experimenting with different Chrironomid patterns and presentation styles with little to show for it I go in a completely different direction and tie on a Green Devil, which is basically a 1/32nd oz micro jig; green in color with an orange head. A fish grabbed it on the first cast! The fish are on this fly and by lunch it is mangled beyond repair.

It’s now closing in on lunchtime and needing more Green Devils, I kick in, set up my vice and tie 5 more. Then Lane cooks up some good burgers and we dine overlooking the lake. Full and tired, it was time for a siesta. Got back out on the lake at 2:30 and caught 4 trout on my first 5 casts! This fast action held up through the rest of the afternoon. Back on shore at the end of the day we were all smiles and agreed the fishing today had been epic. The hot flies were green toned leeches and woolly buggers. Carson got a steelhead sized fish on a Chironomid down by the earth dam.

Paul and Henry went down to the lower lake and had excellent action as well. The Rocky Ridge lakes have all been recently stocked and fishing is very good.

http://rockyridgeranchoregon.com/

Rocky Ridge Fish a Long 5-20-17

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It is time again for our annual fish a long at Rocky Ridge Ranch. This is one of the few events that the club has where there is a limit on the number of people.  This year we are only going to have the lakes on Saturday with a limit of 10 people.

If you have not fished these lakes in the past it is something you should not miss. The ranch is located in Central Oregon and is about 40 miles south of The Dalles so the weather should be great. The lakes are well stocked with large trout for catch and release fishing. This is your opportunity to get into a real monster.

The cabin is available for both Friday and Saturday evening for $30 per person. There is a limit of 6 people so let me know if you are interested in spending the evening.

The fishing is limited to 10 anglers and we currently have 7 people signed up.

The cost for fishing these private lakes is usually $135 but with your club membership the cost is $100.

Please get your payment to Paul Brewer prior to the 20th

The club will provide a light breakfast as well as lunch on Saturday.

If you have any questions contact Paul Brewer ponzdog@icloud.com

Directions:  VIEW IN GOOGLE MAPS